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As mentioned in my previous update, I released some of the older players, and brought in some younger replacements. With the pick of the bunch being 28 year old winger Milan Bezak, 27 year old striker Tomas Bartos, Martin Nadansky, a 26 year old central midfielder, Martin Kosut, a right midfielder still only 19, and Miroslav Harsanyi an out and out striker of the same age. I wasn’t sure how much of the new season some of these would play, especially the younger ones, but I am sure they will all play a vital part.

After only just avoiding the drop last season, the aim was to show progression by moving up the table away from any danger. Sadly the media and board were right for the second season in a row, and another relegation battle ensued. Hopefully the faithful Myjava fans come back next season, as the season ticket sales remained the same as before for this difficult season.

As I mentioned above, the league was a struggle as we flittered between the relegation zone and one place above. Fortunately the two promoted teams of the year before were the victims of relegation this season with Spiszka Nova Ves surely securing a very unwelcomed league record by losing all 33 league matches. In fact it was against them that we recorded our own club record in a 6-0 victory in which new signing Martin Kosut scored his second hatrick of the season. Amazingly the first coming against the same team, in an excellent away 6-2 win. Sadly we couldn’t play them every week, and the other teams were far stronger, which is showed in the final standings.

Somewhere where we did make some progress on before was the Slovak FA Cup. Whereas before, Spartak Myjava had never progressed past the first round, it was the third round where we departed the competition this time around. It was no disgraceful exit either, as we battled through a tough 3-1 defeat against First Division outfit Presov. Not a great achievement I guess, but a small slither of progress.

The manager and board alike were very pleased that one of our newest signings Martin Kosut was voted as the Fans’ Player of the Season. The right winger scored two hatricks during the season, and is one of the few positives of a very difficult season.

Aim for next season
Really it would be to finish higher than 10th in our division. I am finding this a tough save, and hopefully something will click next season and get some momentum going throughout the club. Another ‘mini’ cup run would be nice as well.

Here I am, proud to take charge at Víkingur Ólafsvík in the Icelandic First Division. Here is the screenshot of the Managers Profile. First time since FM'09 that I'm trying a challenge like this, I hope I'll enjoy it! I'll update in a few days. Wish me luck.

Transfers - Brought in severa, players including the only decent goalkeeper i could find in the entire world...from a Welsh team, and overpaying. Oh well.

- Champions League

We went onto the group stages again, not without suffering, and were drawed with Metalist, Liverpool and Olympique Marselle. We did not have much chances to do anything in the group, but ended up getting three points out of France, beating Liverpool home, to then lose 2-4 to Metalist home and see our dreams to continue in Europe vanish. Group Stages.

League

- Won our sixth consecutive title with 6 games to spare. No news here, except that we beat the record (our own) of most goals, 91 to 94.

- We continue to not be able to improve as our best players want to leave since we're not good enough for top-flight football. If this goes on, we'll just stay where we are. We also have £18m in the bank but no stadium expansion yet.

- Season passes - 40, one more than last year.
- Attendance - 412 in average, 20 more than last year.
- Club's value - £13m - £2m more than last year.
- Sponsorship - £85k per year, same.
- Match/Season ticket - £10/£82 - Same as last year.
- The league was down 9 places, to 59.
- The club is up now 19 spots, to 69!
- The league is snow 23th, in coefficient. 15th is the first place that would mean an extra Euro spot.

- Aims for next season:
- Try to keep the better talent. Not gonna happen though.

League / Domestic Cups: For the 5th season in a row I took out the league without losing a game, stretching my unbeaten league run to 192 games! I also took out all 4 domestic cups for the 2nd season in a row, despite rotating my side heavily to rest players for Europe.

Despite the other Northern Irish losing all of their European matches, Dunloy still single handedly increased the League Reputation / National Coefficient

League Reputation: 32nd (-10) - between Denmark Superliga and Romanian First Division
Club Coefficient: 13th (-5) - between Liverpool and Roma
National Coefficient: 11th (-1) - between Scotland and Ukraine

Europe: For the first time, I started in the Champions League group stage, and was drawn against Man City, Fiorentina and FC Kobenhavn - not a bad group as far as CL groups go.

I started my campaigne very well, with a surprise 4-2 away win against Man City, and followed this up with a 2-2 home draw against Fiorentina, and two comfortable wins against FC Kobenhavn. I was then unlucky in a 2-2 home draw against Man City, and a lucky 1-0 away win against Fiorentina, which saw me secure top spot in the group for the first time in Dunloy's history, and into the knockout round for the third season in a row.

CL 1st Knockout Round v Deportivo: 0-0(A), 3-1(H): The away leg was quite even, with both sides having good chances, but ended 0-0. The second leg at home was much more comfortable, and despite Deportivo getting the lead after 10 minutes they never looked like winning, and Dunloy goals in the 26th, 35th and 90th minute saw them come away with a deserved win.

CL Qtr Final v Olympique Lyonnais: 2-2(H), 0-2(A): The home leg against OL started badly, and after 63 minutes the French side were 2-0 up. However, then a red card to OL turned things around, and goals to Dunloy in the 68th and 79th saw Dunloy come away with a somewhat lucky draw. The away started in a similar fashion, and again on the 63rd minute OL were 2-0 up... however there was no red card or Dunloy fightback to follow, and that is how it ended, Dunloy getting knocked out 2-4 on aggregate. OL went on to reach the final and lose to Porto in extra time.

Team Summary / Star Players: I made an astonishing 21 signings this season, mostly young players on bosmans or who were released. However, of all the signings, it was 29 year old vetran Andrew Wisdom who was the pick of the new players:

Andrew Wisdom: Having been released from Middlesborough after having made 260 league apperances for Middlesborough, Burnley, Huddersfield and Liverpool, his signing was a coup for Dunloy, and whilst he demanded a staggering $33,000 per week (as well as a Match Highest Earner Clause), he had a great debut season, getting 5 goals, 3 assists and 5 MoM at 7.42 from 42 apperances - not bad for the oldest player in the squad! He also took out the Supporters Player of the Season

My pick of the youngsters, and Northern Irish Player of the Season, was midfielder Kevin Lee:

Kevin Lee: Playing his second season at Dunloy after a $8.25m move from Celtic, the Scottish midfielder has finally cemented his spot in the first XI, with 2 goals and 13 assists at 7.14 from 39 games, and whilst those stats aren't super impressive, his attributes have noticably improved from last season, and hopefully will continue to do so. Also took out the Northern Irish Young Player of the Season

Unfortunatly though, ever since installing the 11.2 patch, most of my senior squad refuses to sign a new contract, and due to this I have lost 8 first team players at the end of this season (of which 6 had played over 150 games). Sadly, of these 8 players, 3 of them were key players, and between them had played 592 games, scored 122 goals, and hold a lot of the Dunloy team records

Dunloy say goodbye to...

Rene Bisson: The English / French keeper joined Dunloy 5 seasons ago after being released by Man City as an 18 year old and imediatly made the 1st choice keeper spot his own. He went on to play a Dunloy record 154 league games (287 total games), and after a lot of interest from different clubs, decided to join Blackpool, where he is now worth $5.25M. Will be very hard to replace.

Moses Jagne: The English / Gambian striker joined Dunloy after being released by Tottenham 4 seasons ago, and his debut season at Dunloy as a 21 year old was one to remember, with Jagne breaking Dunloy records for Top Leaguscorer (26), Top Goalscorer (37), Most MoM (11) and highest average rating (7.48). He has since gone on to score a record breaking 66 league goals and 101 Dunloy goals in total. He has also managed 6 caps and 5 goals for Gambia after giving up on waiting for an English call-up. Being able to chose from many offers, he chose to move to Toulouse in France, and is now worth $9.5M! Thankfully I have several decent strikers to chose from, but none with the scoring record of Jagne.

Stephen Holland: The Englishman has been at Dunloy for 5 seasons after leaving Liverpool as a 19 year old, and for 4 of those seasons he was the Dunloy captain. Whilst he didn't win many awards (just one Supporters Player of the Season), it is interesting to note Dunloy has not lost a league game under Holland's leadership - hopefully it can continue in his abscence. He ends up with 21 goals from 159 games at 7.19 - not super stats, but he will be missed in the middle of the field. Decided to join Ipswich at the end of the season, and is now worth $5.25M

So, whilst it was another good season, I will need some more quality signings next season to replace the 8 players I have lost this season - interstingly, all of the players who's contracts expire next season also refuse to sign a new contract - not good!

Finances / Facilities

Another good European run, another tidy profit, this time $7.5M to bring my total balance to $52M

After finishing dafuge challenge with Colwyn Bay I return to the my favourite challenge as I can be a team in Wales . Hopefully I can complete it this season(Without it blowing up my laptop ) and make it my longest running save/final one on FM11.

After a reloading a few times and seeing the same teams come up I decided to go for Barry Town as they came up the least. Was tempted to go Afan Lido but felt it would take away some enjoyment having been them the last 2 years.

Hopefully I can help them return to be the best in Wales and take them further than before in Europe.

Not much was going on here. We bought a bunch of egyptians and that was it, basically. No major money injections like last year when we had got promoted.

What I was afraid from was actually a technicality. I had just installed patch 11.2.1 and was afraid my tactics would stop working. I play an highly offensive 4-4-2/4-2-4 which is a tad outdated for modern football and I'm frankly baffled that it works so well. If the match engine had improved, chances are it would start being outplayed by better formations.

The championship

Not the greatest of starts again. We got some wins but also some bad defeats and couldn't find much consistency. Struggling to better our board's minimum objective of 4th place, I decided to do some tactical changes, trying out a few wild formations with wing-backs and pairs of attacking midfielders. It got worse, we dropped to 6th and I went back to the 4-2-4.

And then the team got straightened out. We'd only lose a single league game after November. We climbed into a tight fight for 2nd place with Zagreb and Dinamo, which lasted for most of the later stages of the league. And then, just like last year, the leaders Hajduk slipped and we were suddenly in contention for the championship for the very final part.

Hajduk, Olimpija and Dinamo were all tied on 62 points coming into the final game - Hajduk however having a better direct confrontation record were with an advantage. They'd receive Rijeka at home, while I'd visit my old team Granicar away. And we scored early, by our young centre-back Dario Vulic. We spent the rest of the game trying to defend from Granicar's dangerous attacks and listening to the radio waiting for any Hajduk goal that would spoil the party. Nothing ever came out of either game - Hadjuk tied 0-0, we won 1-0, and were croatian champions!!!

Europe

The chance to participate in the Europa League was highly exciting, but we unfortunately got PSV Eindhoven as our first ever european opponents. They arrived to Croatia to beat us 2-0 in a game where we actually were the better team but got unlucky, then in Holland we scored just before the break and threatened to tie the leg for the rest of the match. The goal never came and we were kicked out of the competition, but with our honour intact.

Cup

Having always flopped in the domestic cup in the past, we set out to try do to something in this. And we did! Early opponents were fairly easy in theory, nevertheless we got a few scares but did manage to get past them. On the quarter final we beat local rivals Osijek, then on the semis we were paired against Croatia's top team, Dinamo Zagreb, and beat them too.

DL - Marcel Novko - I hired Papp and Ferreira which were very good left-backs but neither impressed and I stuck with Novko again.

DC - Vladica Vasic - A ridiculous goalscorer. At a point I decided I was exploiting the AI a little bit with my corner routine (aim far post, have a giant guy there) and started playing it mixed yet the ball would still go in.

DC - Dario Vulic - My new other giant goalscorer defender, amazing at the age of 19.

The domestic part of the challenge is finished, now comes the hard part. I'm hoping for a little financial growth from the Champions League, as we're still only the 10th richest club in Croatia. Reaching the group stages would be a very big boost.

Also, I finally filled the 5000 seats of the stadium in the cup final, and came near to it in one or two other matches, but our fanbase is still not enough to expand it.

I'm not sure what's more unrealistic, a northern irish side playing the Champions League final or it being held at the Jamor. That stadium has very big trouble handling the portuguese cup final in real life!

Congrats on reaching the final but I already know what happened after randomly reading a post of yours in the General Discussion forum.

League / Domestic Cups: Another season undefeated in the league and domestic cups - now brings my unbeaten league run to 230 and counting, plus the 3rd season in a row I have won all 4 domestic cups. I managed to set a record 104 points this season by only drawing 5 games out of 38 - will I be able to have a perfect 100% winning season next season?

Europe: Once again started in the group stage, and was drawn against Sevilla, OM and St Johnstone from Scotland (in their CL debut).

As per last year, I had very little problems in the group stage, and again ended the group stage undefeated and in first place with 5 wins (the highlight being a 5-1 away win against St Johnstone) and 1 draw (1-1 away against OM). It is quite promising to see how my team has developed from not being able to get past the CL group stage 5 seasons ago to now topping the group without too many problems.

CL 1st Knockout Round v Sporting CP: 2-2(A), 2-1(H): The away leg started well, with Dunloy racing out to a 2-0 lead by the 35th minute... however a Dunloy red card shortly afterwards changed that, and Sporting managed to make their extra numbers count with goals on the 41st and 76th minute - thankfully I was able to not conceed any more goals and leave with a draw heading into the home leg.

The home leg started much like the away one, and again by the 35th minute I was 2-0 up. Sporting did manage to fight back and get one back on 54th minute, however it wasn't enough, and at the end of two very closley fought legs Dunloy got through 4-3 on aggregate.

CL Qtr Final v Inter: 0-2(A), 3-0(H): The away leg was very close, with Inter having 14 shots to my 12, and possession around 50-50. However, a small lapse in concentration saw them score in the 30th and 31st minute, and to top it off, Dunloy were then awarded a penalty in the 44th minute which they missed! So, despite a close game, I leave with a 0-2 away leg and a lot of work to do at home if I am to progress.

The home leg was again quite even, and in the 36th minute midfielder Ricky Jones managed to score a screamer from the edge of the area to give me hope, but I still needed to find at least one more. As time was ticking away I threw men forwards in desperation, and then in the 86th minute substitute striker Josh Hunt scores to tie the game 2-2 on aggregate! That's how it stayed at 90 minutes, and was also how it was after 120 minutes... however in the 122nd minute (ie 2nd minute of injury time), rose above the pack and managed to score from a corner to make history and send Dunloy through to the Semi-Finals! Amazing finish to the match!

CL Semi Final v Chelsea: 2-2(A), 0-0(H): The away leg started great, with Dunloy converting from a contreversial penalty in the 6th minute, however Chelsea struck back on the 14th and 38th minute to give them the lead. This remained for most of the match, until Chelsea had a player sent off on the edge of the area for a second yellow, and captain Andre Wisdom managed to fire in a great shot from the free kick to tie things up again. Chelsea then had a 2nd player sent off in the 89th minute, and whilst I didn't have time to take advantage of my 2 man advantage, it did mean two Chelsea players who couldn't play in the home leg!

The home leg was a much tighter affair, with neither side having many shots on target. Whilst Chelsea managed 6 on target to Dunloy's 3, both keepers had great games and neither side was able to score, so the final score was 0-0, and much to my delight, that resulted in a 2-2 aggregate score from the away leg and Dunloy going through on away goals! Suddenly, Dunloy were only one game away from finally completing this challenge

CL Final v Real Madrid: Of all the sides I didn't want to face in the final, it was Real Madrid, who went undefeated in their group and then smashed CSKA Moscow (2-0), Roma (6-1) and FC Bayern (5-1) on their way ot the final - but I guess to be the best I have to beat the best!

I will be posting a seperate blow by blow update of the final...

Team Summary / Star Players: I brought in 11 players this season, again most on a free but $14.25M on a 20 year old goalkeeper from Liverpool. $9M on a 19 year old midfielder from West Brom, and $5.5M on a stunning 17 year old defender from Rangers to replace those players who left the club last season (couldn't find a decent replacement striker, so I'll have to do with my existing strikers). Unfortunatly, I also have 5 more players refusing to renew their contract and move onto other clubs at the end of this season, so I will again have to look to replace them next season - it is fair to say everyone I sign now is on a 5 year contract, as I can almost guarentee they will refuse to renew their contract when it expires.

The best Dunloy player this season and Supports Player of the Year, as he was last year, was the oldest player in the squad, 30 year old centre back Andre Wisdom.

Andre Wisdom: After a great season last year, he managed to lift his performances even further this season. Despite his many low attributes, every key defensive attribute is impressive (at this level at least), and he again was the best performing Dunloy player, scoring 8 goals, 1 assist and 6 MoM at 7.43 from 45 games. Unfortunatly, when I picked him up on a free I only signed him on to a 2 year contract, so he has decided to join Sunderland at the end of this season, but hopefully he has one more big performance left in him!

The best Dunloy youngster this season, and winner of N. Irish Premier Division Young Player of the Year, was 20 year old central midfielder Tim Edwards

Tim Edwards: Purchased from West Brom for $9M at the start of the season as a replacement for my main central midfielder who left the club last season, and like Andre Wisdom, whilst he has some quite low attributes, the key attributes I look at are all quite decent at this level, and given he's contracted for another 4 years I'm hoping he can improve to his performances. Managed an impressive 13 goals, 11 assists and 4 MoM at 7.26 from 43 games in his debut season, and of course has one game to go.

Despite spending $29M on transfers, and $515k / week on salaries, I only made a loss of $1M, and still have around $50M in the bank.

2023 Finances

New Club Records
Average Attendnace: 446
Most Games Won in Row: 23 - 26/10/2022 to 14/1/2023
Highest Transfer Fee Paid: $14,250,000 (Jason Stamp from Liverpool - 1/7/2022)
Total Transfer Spending: $29,500,000

Ok, that is season 2023 wrapped up, all that is left is the is the Champions League Final...

Transfers - A pretty eventful summer. Stuart Redmond came on a free after last year's loan to strengthen the midfield. And Adam Warner re-joined us for a second spell, in which he did not get much playtime either. Martin Bednar, a creative midfielder from the Czech Republic, would prove a good asset, and so would Bouali and Juhasz on the wings. Chris Killen would join us late in the year, and De Santis arrived on a loan from Argentina as a promising midfielder, but got injured twice and was sent back within a month.

- Champions League

- Went past Vilaznia, Rijeka and Slavia Sofia in the previous stages to go onto the group stage, where we were drawed with Real Madrid (historic champions with now 16 trophies), last year's Euro semifinalist Werder Bremen, and Fehervar, who on paper were the worst team in the group (we are now in the third group of teams on the group stage drawings)

- The group started with a 6-0 trashing by Los Blancos in Madrid, in a game where we just did not stand a chance. We turned it around with an amazing win at Port Talbot against Werder 1-0, Martin Bednar providing the goal. We added to the party with a 0-4 trashing of Fehervar in Hungary, but the happiness did not stick around, since we lost 1-2 home to the same team (with 10 man from minute 5, stupid Warner), against Real Madrid at home 0-3, and in Germany 6-2, in an amazingly entertaining game.

We still managed to finish third, which meant we were going onto the final rounds of the Euro cup. Mighty Sampdoria awaited in the round of 32, a team with lots of talent but which had not been doing well in Europe at all. We managed to stay alive, by beating them 2-1 home and losing 3-2 in Italy.

In the round of 16, we were sent to Italy yet again, this time to play Palermo. We beat the Italians 3-2 home with a 92' screamer by Spaniard Gallego, but could not hold them away, as they trashed us 5-2 in the second leg. They would go on to reach the semifinals of the tournament, so that made us feel like we had done our best.

League

- We trailed a bit at the beginning, while the European games were more of our concern, but as soon as we were focused in the league again, we had it in the bag. We win our seventh straight title, and our 11th in the past 12 years.

Chris Killen, who arrived 10 games later than the beginning of the tournament, managed to finish top scorer, with 19 goals. Nikolaou ended third, with 15. Everitt earned the max assists award, with 13. O'Donnell and Gallego, the right and left backs, finished as best defenders in the league. Harris (CB) and Killen also finished the league as the best rated players in terms of match ratings.

- Chris Killen literally Killed it. He arrived in October and 29 goals in 31 games in all competitions. At 24 years old, the ex-Arsenal is looking like our next Angeli. Everitt also looks like he could be world class in the right for our side. At age 18, he managed 8 goals and 22 assists for us this year. He was also in the Top 5 assistants in the Euro cup...even though we only played four games in that competition.

- Three other players also got to double digits: Collins with 18 in 30, even though he missed 6 weeks of competiiton; Nikolaou with 23 in 35, and Bednar, with 10 goals and 11 assists from the midfield.

- The overall European run was very decent, qualifying third in the group of who would be the champion (Real Madrid), and losing to Palermo, semifinalist in Euro Cup.

- We had ten players in the league's best eleven; Killen was named player of the year in Wales, for the fifth consecutive year an Afan Ludo player. Everitt got young player of the year for his second consecutive year. Even though we won all three titles this year, the manager of the year went to the manager of Camarthen Town...who finished sixth in the league.

- We have now a very...well, present presence when it comes to international call-ups; Two first team international in Scotland, RB O'Donnell (who does not want to renew his contract) and CB Wilson. the Brittish U-21 side called Everitt a couple of times, and so did the Check Republic U-21 with Martin Bednar.

- We now have £19m in the bank, but talking about a new stadium or even a stadium expansion is completely useless. We continue to have an attendance of 550 in every European game, which is a shame if you ask me. The board does not hesitate to take dividends every year, though. This year they took home £750k.

- Even though we continue to improve the youngsters and training facilities every year, we still have not seen a single decent player. We might not see anybody at all. Oh well.

- Two players are pretty much done after decades here: Marc Pratt left at the end of the year. The centerback, after 10 years here, wanted more games and at age 34, joined Neath Athletic on a free.

- Angeli is the other one who is done and over with, sadly. He has played here 15 years, but he ust does not have what it takes anymore to score them. We gave him 13 games last year to prove he still had it, but he failed to score. He is not transfer listed in the reserves team.

- Season passes - 41, one more than last year.
- Attendance - 419 in average, 7 more than last year.
- Club's value - £15.25 - £2.25m more than last year.
- Sponsorship - £85k per year, same.
- Match/Season ticket - £10/£82 - Same as last year.
- The league was up 14 places. We are now a Top 50 league, in 44th place.
- The club was up another 15 spots to 54th place!
- The league is snow 16, in coefficient. I am so gutted that we did not make 15th place, since that one was the first league who has an extra CL spots. I would have loved to see what happened in terms of giving it to which team. I don't know if we'll be able to keep up the good European runs to see us past that 16th place for now.

- Aims for next season:
- To qualify for the next CL stage after the group stage.

League (League Table)
A fourth successive title was easy. Llanelli and Haverfordwest continue to dominate the rest. Nothing else to mention apart from Cambrian & Clydach getting only 6 points!

Europe (European Results)
Champions Cup qualifying was pretty edgy as we returned to the lucrative group stages. The results are in the screen shot. We got a rude welcome as we were stuffed 5-0 at Inter whilst reigning champs FC Bayern came to Wales and won 2-0. We drew 0-0 at Lyon before beating them 1-0 in Wales! Comfortable defeats against Inter and Bayern followed but 4 points was enough for 3rd so we went into the Euro Cup knockout stages again.

We were drawn against Olympiakos and a famous 2-1 away win was backed up by a 1-1 draw at home to send us through for the first time to the 2nd knockout round where we fell to Benfica 3-0 on aggregate, notably closer than when we played them in the Champions Cup group stage 2 years ago.

Domestic Cups
A first domestic treble was secured as we won both the Welsh Cup and Loosemoores League Cup. Both finals were against Bala Town.

The Numbers
Here are some numbers which should help keep track of the clubs/leagues progress:
Average Attendance - 259 - down 7
Club Value - £9M - up £2.4M
Sponsership - £24.3k - up £17.74K
Club Coefficient - 28.300, 70th - up 10.800, up 45 places

Transfers
The squad had some good players for this level so I didn't bought a lot of players. The defense area was a little short so three players joined us: One hot prospect on free, a left defender from Fylkir for 10K£ and one central defender who is known here, Ibrahim Shikanda for a bargain, only 350£. Also, I've signed a danish striker on free transfer to complete the squad.

Icelandic First Division
It was a very good season for us as we managed to win the league pretty easily. Even if the medias predicted us at the 11th rank, my players have done a great job. Here is the League Table.

Icelandic Cups
This season could have been better if we had a little bit luck in the cups. We unfortunately lost in the quarter finals of the Upper Leagues Cup againt Valur, a Premier Division side, on penalty shoot-outs. In the Icelandic Cup, we managed to get through the semi-final and with no surprise we lost 0-3 against KR, the Premier Division champions this year.

Player of the Season
Undoubtely, our best player this season was the slovenian player Aljaz Horvat. Playing at the club since 2007, he used to play as an attacking midfielder but since I'm playing without one, I decided to place him as a striker. It was a very good call because he was just oustanding, finishing top scorer of the league.

Other Informations
Even if I spend only the quarter of the wage budget given for the season, the gate receipts for the year and the other incomes were too low to match the expenditures. So we finished the year with a balance in the red (-4K£). Hopefuly, the attendance will grow up next season so we can stop the money loss.

Next Year's Aim
During the cup games, we were close to win against some of the big clubs of the Premier Division. That's gives me hope for the next season and we will try to secure quickly our place in the Premier Division.

Btw, I present my excuses if some of my sentences are not clear. I'm from Switzerland and try my best to express myself correctly in English. If you want to see other screenshots or informations, feel free to ask.

A squad mainly full of Welsh players (which I expect to change until we can produce our own) with the rest being homegrown. A load of players in including
experienced Welsh internationals David Partridge, Gareth Taylor and one for next season Robbie Savage.

Key Players

David Partridge - Solid in defence all season used his experience well to knit new players together in defence.

Alex Lawless - Was the creative force and finished top of the assists in the league.

Jason Price - Showed no signs of being past it and since signing in January was lethal up-top and scored the most he has ever had in season.

I started the season well and by halfway was only 2 points off the top held by Gyor. Debrecen, the champions from the last 2 years were a massive 10 points behind me. They soon charged up the league thanks to a 10 game winning streak, my teams own form wobbled a bit before they also put a winning run together. Gyor completely collapsed and were out of the race by 25 games. The defining game was the 27th when i went to Debrecen' ground 4 points clear. A hard fought 1-0 win almost assured Budafok of the title and although the team lost the next game the title was won with a game to spare.
My reserves played the league cup and went out to Gyor in the semi-final, after winning the home leg 2-0, they lost 3-0 away.
In the hungarian cup my passage to the final was relatively untroubled, in the final i faced Debrecen and comfortably won 3-1 to again show my increasing dominance of hungarian football.
In Europe i was less successful, after seeing off Honka i faced Turkish Gaziantepspor in the Euro cup 3rd Q Rd and won 1-0 away. In the home leg i conceeded in the first minute and my star player Nana was sent off after 7 minutes, I easily lost the game 4-2.

My squad is really settled now with a few additions brought in on free's. The finances meant that Mabena and Serbin were sold on.Nana was again the standout player and scored a record number of goals, Wosniak also had a good season, the striking options beyond them need improvement along with the backup goalie.

Hungarian sides haven't done too well in europe so the league is not improving or the coefficient ratings (currently 26th), Money seems quite tight with most sides having stands shut down and the amount of prize money not changing. My sponsorship money is the lowest in the league, barely a quarter of the average amount.

Wow, I thought I was doing well but Welsh Wizard has completely beasted that first season!

Another update from me as I need to catch up with my game. This is season 7 and I'm currently in season 9 so I'm almost there.

j.hillard's Afan Lido - Season 2017/18

We received another big upgrade to our training facilities meaning we now have top training facilities rated at 5 star. We can now scout the whole world, not that anyone will sign!

League (League Table)
Our dominance took a step up this season as we dropped just 4 points and scored a record 111 goals. At the other end poor old Bridgend only got 2 points and shipped a record 107 goals!

Europe (European Results)
We comfortably qualified for the Champions Cup group stages. The results are in the screen shot. We were paired with Bayern again and got beat 4-0 away in our first match. We then suffered a harsh 2-0 reverse against Man City before doing the double over Sporting, 2-1 at home and a crazy 4-3 win away. Bayern comfortably beat us again, 3-0, leaving us with a winner takes all showdown with Man City for second spot. Things were looking good as we went 2-0 up but they got a goal back and were all over us. Luckily we held on and progressed from the group stage for the first time!

The mighty AC Milan were our opponents in the first knockout stage and we were humbled 5-0 on aggregate.

Domestic Cups
A second consecutive domestic treble was secured as we won both the Welsh Cup and Loosemoores League Cup. Neath were on the receiving end in one of the finals again.

Transfers (Transfers)
Only brought in one player this season, promising goal keeper Miles Henderson (screenie from season 9). Despite my European success I still can't seem to sign anyone from outside of Britain which is annoying.

The Numbers
Here are some numbers which should help keep track of the clubs/leagues progress:
Average Attendance - 252 - down 7
Club Value - £12.75M - up £3.75M
Sponsorship - £24.3k
Club Coefficient - 44.180, 45th - up 15.880, up 25 places

I am finding the Slovakian 2nd Division a tough nut to crack, and although I am determined to complete this challenge it could take some time...

Congrats to everyone else who is taking part in this, and hopefully I can join in the successes very soon....

I nearly gave up on the challenge after struggling in the Hungarian 2nd div, there seemed to be no decent players willing to come to me to improve the squad. I ended up looking at African u20 squads to trial a few players.
It seems harder in some of the 2nd divs than winning the 1st div. Mind i'm still failing to make an impact in Europe at all even after winning back to back titles, all the welsh players don't know how lucky they are being able to sign english talents to boost the squad.

I am going to persevere, as I've grown quite attached to Spartak Myjava. Hopefully the chairman decides to persevere also. I am currently just past mid-way in season three and despite my points total being better at the same point in previous years, the other bottom clubs are all picking up points as well.

As far as transfers go, I have been offered a couple of players from African leagues from their greedy agents, and have taken them on. One in particular could be a very good signing, a defensive midfielder currently in the Ghana U20 squad.

Transfers - The most important signings were Hickling, a strong forward from England, and Uruguayan goalkeeper Rodriguez. We also brought Pamic at the tender age of 18, a very promising forward.

- Champions League

- Rabotnick, Gyor and Dinamo Zagreb saw us go through to the group stages, where we were thrown in with Inter, Dinamo Kiev, and Rennais form France. We managed to qualify to the next round for the first time in our history even though we had three red cards in six group stage games.

We beat Dinamo home and away ,and got three ties with Rennais (twice) and an amazing 1-1 tie against Inter at Milan, in a game where we were winning all the way to the 90th minute, when a red card and a goal on extra time saw things balance out. Oh well.

The rival in the round of 16 was Barcelona. They trashed us on an aggregate of 11-2, and we were out like that. The cules went onto the semifinals, though. Is still amazes me how other players can manage to not only win the CL, but to go past stages as easy as they do when I can't match the European giants in 2030. Another oh well.

League

- Nice, quite season, won with 6 games to spare, record of league points, 9th consecutive title.

- Rodriguez got hold of the goal from day one, and as of today he is vital for us. The new signing Richardson in the back was also class. Redmond ended with an amazing 12 assists and 16 goals from the midfield, and Everitt continued his progress.

Up front, Hickling just ripped it on his debut season, and Killen kept his last season's numbers.

- Season passes - 43, two more than last year.
- Attendance - 472 in average, 53 more than last year.
- Club's value - £18 - £3m more than last year.
- Sponsorship - £85k per year, same.
- Match/Season ticket - £10/£82 - Same as last year.
- The league was up 13 places. We are now 31st!
- The club was up another 17 spots, we are 37th. Amazing for us.
- £21m in the bank, still 550 capacity for European games.
- Well fellas, it looks like we made it to 14th in league coefficients, which means that for the first time ever in Wales, we will have TWO CL teams next year, on top of the three Euro ones. Next year could be exciting.

Squad is gaining more English players. To show the difference. Slightly less players in this season but alot of top players added for next season with the Forwards standing-out. Lita, Andy Johnson, Colin Nish and Shola Ameobi. Much needed wide players are brought in with Knightly and Arron Davies being levels above anyone in the league.

Training and youth facilities are getting improved thanks to the Run in Euro. Club also turns Pro.

Key Players

Tommy Banks - The ex-Liverpool youth player kept tight in defence and also offered something in attack. Another ex-Liverpool player looks to take his place next season but should be very good cover.

Tom Walker - The ex-Chelsea youth player was the creative player in mid and was our playmaker. I can see him being a key player for a while his is improving all the time.

Mark Crowther - The ex-City youth player had speed and strength to challenge most defences in the League and could also create chances. Even after a top season will be hard to get games with the new forwards in.

A great run and beat some decent teams to get in the group where we managed to get a victory vs F.C. Copenhagen(F.C. København) at home but the rest the aim was just to keep the margin of the loss down.

This is it, I am only one win away from finally completing this challenge, however that win will have to come against the might of Real Madrid, a star studded team with 9 current internationals in their starting XI (5 from Brazil), and an average player value of $19M... this is not going to be easy!

Before we kickoff, let's look at the two key players identified for this match

Dunloy - Lee Jones: In his first season with Dunloy after being released by Liverpool, this 24 year old right back is the key player in the Dunloy defence, and whilst his stats of 0 goals and 2 assists at 7.19 from 60 games don't make great reading (in European competition it is 6.79 from 11 games), he is probably the best player in the Dunloy squad, and in the Northern Ireland Premier Division, with excelent attributes at that level. Earning $33k / week, he is the highest earner at Dunloy.

Real Madrid - Philipp Neustadter: The 29 German striker was purchased by Real Madrid 2 seasons ago from Schalke for a staggering $71M (the 3rd highest transfer in the game), and looking at his attributes, he is simply a beast! Surprisingly he has only scored 3 goals and 4 assists at 7.18 from 11 European matches this season, but he has also been shortlisted for the last three World Golden Balls. Earning $240k / week, he earns just under the total Dunloy wage bill, and amazingly isn't the highest earner at Real Madrid.

Time for the kickoff in the biggest game in Europe, Dunloy is lining up with the usual attacking 4-2-2 (really a 4-2-2-2, with an AML and AMR), whilst Real Madrid is starting with a defensive looking 4-2-1-2-1

Kickoff

3rd Minute: Dunloy player is fouled just outside the 18 yard box and they are given a free kick in good position. A floating cross is met by the head of Dunloy defender Wisdom and flies towards goal, but a diving save by the Real Madrid keeper and he holds onto it... the first chance for the match

8th Minute: A corner for Real Madrid now, it goes to the far post and is met by Real Madrid central defender Ramos, his header heads goalward, but pushed away by Dunloy keeper Stamp, the ball bounces back to Ramos, who shoots first time from a tight angle, and Stamp again manages to push it away, and this time it is cleared by the Dunloy defence

24th Minute: Dunloy with the ball just outside the 18 yard box, passing it around but the Real Madrid defence is keeping them back... suddenly a fierce shot by Lee towards the bottom left corner, but again well saved and held by the Real Madrid keeper Maranhao, there is a reason he is Brazil's number 1 keeper!

33rd Minute: Another corner by Real Madrid floats into the box, met by central defender Rodrigo, but striaght to keeper Stamp, who holds onto it

36th Minute: Real Madrid with the ball in the middle of the field, suddenly a well timed Dunloy tackle sees the ball fall loose and into the path of Dunloy striker Pearce, who gets around his man and is now one-on-one with the keeper... shoots, and great save by the Real Madrid keeper, corner for Dunloy

45+1 Minutes: Dunloy with the ball in injury time of the first half... a long pass down the right wing sees Dunloy winger Clemence run onto it, crosses into a crowded penalty area and finds striker Pearce unmarked, who fires into the bottom left corner of the net and beats a diving Real Madrid keeper, goal for Dunloy!!!! Dunloy 1 - Real Madrid 0

End of 1st Half: Dunlot 1 - Real Madrid 0 Whilst Real Madrid may have had more of the ball, it is Dunloy who have struck first blood, and now they are 45 minutes from the unimaginable, whilst Real Madrid have it all to do. Dunloy make a 1 for 1 swap, with English striker Hunt on for out of form Brazilian striker Douglas, whilst Real Madrid replace one of their central midfielders with Spanish striker Sanchez as they look to move to a more attacking formation

55th Minute: Dunloy with a corner early in the 2nd half, but well cleared by the Real Madrid defence, and suddenly Real Madrid are running with the ball on the counter attack, and it's two on two... Real Madrid pass the ball around the Dunloy defence, and then around the keeper who has come off his line, and Sanchez is left with a simple tap in to equalise for Real Madrid, super play by the Real Madrid strikers, they were simply to fast and too good for the Dunloy defence on that occasion Dunloy 1 - Real Madrid 1 Interestingly, Sanchez is now being brought off the field, after only being on for 10 minutes and scoring a goal??

70th Minute: Real Madrid again on the counter attack, this time Neustadter with the ball, runs around one defender and shots from the edge of the area, great save required by Dunloy keeper Stamp to keep that one out, and it's a corner

End of 2nd Half: Dunloy 1 - Real Madrid 1 The end of the second half, and whilst it was quieter than the first, Real Madrid were able to make the most of their chances and level the scores, now lets see if either side can win this in extra time. Dunloy is making another like for like substitution, with exahusted Scottish central midfielder Lee coming off for Edwards

92nd Minute: Dunlot with the ball on the edge of the area, but unable to penetrate... suddenly Clemence plays striker Hunt into the area with a great pass, Hunt is free of the defenders and only has the keeper in front of him, he must score... but the Real Madrid keeper gets his fingertips to it and forces it wide, great save!

105+1 Minute: Dunloy again with the ball, heading towards the 18 yard box... sudenly striker Pearce gets around his defender and fires a shot from the edge of the area... diving save by the keeper, however the ball bounces back into the path of Pearce, with an open goal in front of him, surely he must score... but a diving tackle by the Real Madrid defence forces the ball out of play for a corner

120th Minute: With not long to go until the dreaded penalty shoot out, Dunloy brings on 18 year old loanee striker Crawford, a penalty taking specialist, with winger Clemence coming off, and because of this move to a 4-3-3 formation

120+1 Minute: Dunloy are making one last attempt to avoid the penalty shootout, streaming out of defence... bearing down on the 18 yard box, it's now 3 on 3, with the other Real Madrid players no-where to be seen... loanee striker Crawford plays in Hunt, who shoots first time, but straight into the oncoming keeper, however the rebound falls beautifully for Crawford, who shoots, and scores! GOAL FOR DUNLOY!!!!! Wait, there has been a whistle, and the ref has found a foul by Hunt just before Crawford scored the winner, despite him being nowhere near the ball - all of the Dunloy players are protesting, but to no avail.

End of Extra Time: Dunloy 1 - Real Madrid 1 Extra time was dominated by a fresher looking Dunloy, but they could not find the winner, so it's down to the penalty shoot out, with Dunloy up first

Penalty Shoot OutDunloy: 20 year old midfielder Edwards is first up, but he sends it wide! Not the start Dunloy was after Dunloy 0 - Real Madrid 0Real Madrid: Danger man Neustadter up for Real Madrid, and he smashes it into the top left corner Dunloy 0 - Real Madrid 1Dunloy: 18 year old striker Crawford up now, brought on to the field for his penalty taking abilities, he shoots... and it's saved by the diving keeper, great save, and Dunloy are stil yet to get on the board! Dunloy 0 - Real Madrid 1Real Madrid: 25 year old central defender Rodrigo up for Real Madrid, and cooly puts it away Dunloy 0 - Real Madrid 2Dunloy: 24 year old winger Burrows steps up, and finally, Dunloy have converted, but it could all be too late Dunloy 1 - Real Madrid 2Real Madrid: 29 year old full back Digao steps up, and fires just past an outstretch Dunloy keeper Dunloy 1 - Real Madrid 3Dunloy: 24 year old striker Hunt steps up, and must score to keep Dunloy in it... he does, but Real Madrid now have a chance to win it Dunloy 2 - Real Madrid 3Real Madrid: 24 year old midfielder Gotti now with the chance to win it for Real Madrid... and he makes no mistake, Real Madrid are European Champions! Dunloy 2 - Real Madrid 4

Well, what a match! Despite Real Madrid fielding a much better side on paper, the match was evenly matched, and Dunloy thought they had won it in extra time, but it wasn't to be, as the penalty taking gods were against them... still, a fantastic effort, and hopefully they can go one better next season.

I chose Denmark as I didnt see many people going there, I always take one of the first teams to come up, I dont like to reload over and over. I picked up newly promoted Viby Idrætsforening, very poor squad but a decent stadium and stead finances.

Transfers | History - Pedersen - Illugason
Six new players joined the team, three of them as key player. I'm really excited about Pedersen, a very talented youngster who can become one of the best midfielders in the league. I can tell the same about Ljubicic who will be at first a backup but will surely take a first team spot in the future. Illugason is an important transfer too as we need to increase our offensive possibilities.

Icelandic First Division | League Table
Surprisingly we managed to finish at a very good 6th rank. I mean, when you start the competition by losing 2-7 and 1-5 the first two games, you just think about avoiding relegation, nothing more. We went lucky a lot of time, scoring in lasts minutes and taking advantage of the poor level of our opponents.

Icelandic Cups | Icelandic Cup - Upper League Cup
It wasn't a good year for us. When I see the lack of motivation of my players during these games, I think about giving a chance to the players of the reserve team in these cups.

Player of the Season | Shikanda
Shikanda was precious this season. He was majestic in defense but also very successful in offense, scoring 5 goals on free-kicks. I've already offered him a new contract to secure his presence in the team - as I don't see any defender in the league capable of what his doing. - and hope he will be with us for a few seasons.

Other Informations | Finances
Financially, the profit are good for this season but if I didn't organised some lucrative friendlies, we'll be in the red. In the awards, I won the manager of the year title. The chairman is still looking to sell the club but failed to complete the deal many times. I hope that this problem will be solved soon because it's disturbing not being able to sign players during a few months in a year.

Next Year's Aim
We have to do better, not in the ranking but in the performances. Our level is too low to hope anything good for next season so it's obvious that a few new players will join us. Some players suffered of injuries and it we missed them, specially Horvat (5 months), as their substitutes weren't good enough to play at this level.

Hi. I see that some of you who plays in the Welsh premier or in Northern Ireland have very low average attendances, even though you have a lot of money and are doing well in Europe.

Is this because the board haven't let you expand your stadium yet?

Great to read about your progress. Sorry for Dunloy, losing on penalties. Hope you get one better next year.

Taunton - My average attendances of 446 is partly due to my stadium capacity of 625, although it is generally only my European matches that are sellouts, with only a handful of league games reaching the 625 mark (mind you the big 3 old clubs still average over 1,000 per game, with the old dominant club Linfield averaging 4,639 per game!)

Whilst the board has agreed to an expansion the last few seasons, it always gets blocked by the local council, and they refuse to build me a new stadium (probably because it would only be fully utilised during European ties)

Thanks for your words, I also hope to go one better, and the 2024 season update isn't too far away

I started the season well going unbeaten in the league until the 17th game when i crashed to a 4-0 thrashing without mananging a single shot on goal. I was pushed all the way by Fehervar and only won the title with a game to spare. I did achieve a record points score, although my team has improved, the standard of the other teams seems to have gotten much worse. I went out in the semi-final of the hungarian cup and the quarter-final of the league cup. In Europe i competed in the CL for the first time, winning 2-0 at home to BATE before finishing the job with a 2-2 draw away. In the 3rd QRd i faced Brugge and a 3-1 loss at home effectively finished the tie although i restored some face by winning 1-0 away in the 2nd leg. This put Budafok into the 4th Qrd of the Euro cup where i faced Porto. A 1-0 away loss was followed a 2-0 home loss in what were very one-sided matches.

The chairman sold Nana (71 goals in 111 apps) over my head for £2.5 million, i sold on Ghazouni (35 goals in 140 apps)who had slipped down the order and Zitouni (9 goals in 128 apps) who i converted from a striker to a right midfielder. In the league Nana had been exceptional until his departure alongside Arkhipov who had replaced Wozniak, after Nana left Arkhipov then stepped up another gear to ensure Nana wasn't missed at all. Markovic stepped into the midfield and made himself first choice.
The increased finances from the sale of Nana meant that the board agreed to improve both training and youth facilities which they cancelled 5 months later.
I also paid money for only the second player in the clubs history and the first spanish player who would actually join me.

Taunton - My average attendances of 446 is partly due to my stadium capacity of 625, although it is generally only my European matches that are sellouts, with only a handful of league games reaching the 625 mark (mind you the big 3 old clubs still average over 1,000 per game, with the old dominant club Linfield averaging 4,639 per game!)

Whilst the board has agreed to an expansion the last few seasons, it always gets blocked by the local council, and they refuse to build me a new stadium (probably because it would only be fully utilised during European ties)

Don't you find this a bit frustrating? I mean some of the fun is to see a small club develop, both on and off the pitch.

And you are at a club that plays CL-finals. I would have thought that both the council and people in the area would embrace such a club more. I know that here in Norway clubs from remote areas (and i mean remote) draw crowds at about 2-3000 when the club has been promoted to the top flight. And the crowd is not just from nearby, but from a radius of one-two hours of driving.

So I would have thought that a very successful club in Wales and Northern Ireland could draw more attendances.

But the most important is what you do on the pitch and I have to say I am impressed with your progress. Looking forward to the next update.

Whilst the board has agreed to an expansion the last few seasons, it always gets blocked by the local council, and they refuse to build me a new stadium (probably because it would only be fully utilised during European ties)

I am having an issue. After failing at my first attempt i want another go. Decided on Finland, saved on 06/01/2011 with all teams played 36 games etc. Then when I go to continue the same 3 new teams get generated every time. Just continued for the 30th time and it is always the same 3, any ideas?

Given I was so close to completing this challenge last season, missing out on penalties, I decided all I needed was a couple of good signings, so I went into the market and signed 23 players for a total of $26M (most on frees), and raised my weekly wage budget from well under $700k / week to $790k a week. All this put a big strain on our finances (despite releasing 26 players for $4.3M), but I was confident the new signings could make all the difference! Out of the new signings, 4 in particular made a big impact on the side:

Charlie Ince: Picked up on a free in July after being released by Man U and an unsuccessful trial period with West Ham, he demanded a record $55k / week, but was worth every bit of it, becoming the first choice striker and managing 29 goals, 21 assists and 7 MoM at 7.56 from 48 games - that is more than 1 goal or assist a game - he was also the 3rd top goalscorer in the Premier Division, all this at just 24! However, in December he became the 2nd choice striker, as I found someone even better...

Connor Wickham: 31 year old striker also picked on on a free transfer, Arsenal released him in June after paying $43M for him 5 seasons ago, but I only noticed him in December! Although he is 31, his physical stats are ok, and his mental and technical are amazing (compared to the rest of the side), and he also had 35 English caps and 21 goals! Sadly, he was dropped from the English side around the same he joined Dunloy, so I am yet to have a Dunloy player represent England. He instantly became the best Dunloy player ever, although his stats of 12 goals, 9 assists and 3 MoM at 7.41 from 22 games weren't quite as good as those of Ince.

Supporters Player of the Season / N.I. Premier Division Player of the YearLiam McDermott: Another free transfer from Arsenal, the 22 year old has a lot of low attributes, but the key defensive ones are fantastic, with heading, tackling, positioning, balance, jumping and strength all over 15. He had a fantastic season, with 11 goals and 11 MoM at 7.89 from 42 games (averaging 8.08 in the league), and took out fans player of the season and N.I. player of the season. At 22, one for the future

N.I. Premier Division Young Player of the YearThomas Peters: Another new signing, but this one was not a free transfer - quite the opposite, costing $14.25M from Hearts, the only reason I splashed out on him was because I needed a left winger after my old one left the club, but he had a great first season, with 16 goals and 11 assists at 7.35 from 46 games. At only 21 years old he is already a good player, but I'm hoping he can improve to become a truly great player!

League / Domestic Cups: I managed to stretch my unbeaten league record to 268 and counting, but I still conceded 3 draws (35 wins), so still not the perfect season. I also took out all 4 domestic cups this season for the 4th season in a row. Not much else to say really.

In Europe, something amazing happened - a Northern Irish side won a Europa League 4th qualifying tie and made it into the Group Stage... where they went on to lose every group game, but still, it's some sort of progress!

League Reputation: 13th (-8) - between Scottish Premier League and Austrian Premier Division
Club Coefficient: 7th (-2) - between Man Utd and Barcelona
National Coefficient: 11th (0) - between Scotland and Austria

Europe: Drawn against Sporting CP, Besiktas and Red Star, it was as easy a group as you are likely to find in the Champions League, and I topped the group easily with 5 wins and 1 draw, and a GD of +16 (the best Group GD in my Champions League history) - the highlight being a 5-0 home win against Sporting CP. After the convincing group stage I was convinced my signings were just what I needed and confident going into the knockout round against Porto, a team I had only lost to once in the past 4 meetings

CL 1st Knockout Round v Porto: 1-1(A), 1-2(H): The away leg was very close, both with 6 shots on target, 3 clear cut chances, and 1 goal a piece, to leave the away leg with a fair result, and hopefully bring it home in from of the home crowd.

The home leg was also even, but with Dunloy having slightly more shots on target (8 to 6) and clear cut chances (6 to 3), but at the end of 90 minutes it was again 1-1 with Porto's 37 minute strike canceled out by a 42 minute Dunloy goal. Then, deep into injury time, with the game heading towards penalties, Porto's central defender rose up to score from a corner in the 115th minute, and that was it, Dunloy was out of the Champions League in the 1st Knockout Round, their worst result in 5 seasons, I couldn't believe it, especially after last season...

Finances / Facilities

After spending a record $26M on transfers in and raising my Wage costs to $800k / week, I was counting on another good European run to help the finances out. As I got knocked out in the first knockout round, this resulted in Dunloy recording a $36M loss, the first time in history the club has recorded a loss, and what a loss! I now only have $16M left in the bank, another season like this and I will be in the red!

New Club Records
Average Attendance: 586
Most Games Without Conceding: 13 - 28/10/2023 to 16/12/2023
Highest Transfer Fee Received: $2,600,000 (Tom Cleary to Reading - 6/8/2023)
Total Transfer Income: $8,500,000

I can't believe it, after being so close last season and improving the squad with quality free transfers I've now gone backwards - is there any hope of completing this challenge? Only time will tell...

Don't you find this a bit frustrating? I mean some of the fun is to see a small club develop, both on and off the pitch.

And you are at a club that plays CL-finals. I would have thought that both the council and people in the area would embrace such a club more. I know that here in Norway clubs from remote areas (and i mean remote) draw crowds at about 2-3000 when the club has been promoted to the top flight. And the crowd is not just from nearby, but from a radius of one-two hours of driving.

So I would have thought that a very successful club in Wales and Northern Ireland could draw more attendances.

But the most important is what you do on the pitch and I have to say I am impressed with your progress. Looking forward to the next update.

Tauton - it is a little frustrating not being able to play in front of more than 625 fans, but I deliberatly picked Dunloy because they had such poor facilities, so I brought it upon myself! That said I had 7 league stadium sellouts this season, and my average league attendance by stadium % of 93% is higher than previous seasons (and much higher than the next best in the league which is 19%!), so I'm hoping I will be able to expand the stadium sooner or later.

Mind you, I've done some research on Dunloy, and found Dunloy is Irish for "fort of the muddy/marshy place", it is a village of 336 houses and 1,000 people, and it's major attractions are shops, a pub, a bakery and a church... so maybe the board is right to assume the current capacity of 625 is sufficient... after all it is more than half of the population of Dunloy!

Aussieant32 - I have also asked for a new stadium (whenever the option appears), but the board always rejects it as the current fan base does not justify a new stadium (or something similar), but I'll keep on asking!

EDIT: Just after posting this, I have finally had a stadium expansion pass the planning phase, and my board have anounced their stadium expansion plans

281 seats will be installed within the stadium at a cost of $90k to bring the total capacity to a staggering 906!

Marky Mark! I noticed you mostly sign british based players, is this because you can't find any other players around or that they won't join you. I'm finding that players from Western Europe like spain, UK, france , holland, germany won't consider joining me, only found 1 spanish player so far that would. I can now scout everywhere and have managed to get some good players from Brazil to sign for me!
I'm still in a battle with my board at the moment over facilities, they agreed in jan 19 to improve the training and youth facilities only to cancel it 4 months later, now in nov 20 they won't improve them as they say they are good enough. facilities are only adequate which they started at and worse than most of the better teams in the league.

Domestically it was easy but for some reason getting to the Champions League group stages was beyond us this year. a 3-0 loss at Elfsborg was a disaster and we only beat them 2-0 at home which meant we had to go for the Europa League, things going well there though.

Thebaker - Initially the reason all of my signings were from the UK was because no-one else would sign for me... it was only my 10th season (2020/21) that I built my reputation up enough that I managed to sign my first non-UK player - a young bulgarian player who never ended up playing for the senior side.

Now that I have made constant progress in the Champions League the last few seasons I have some international players interested in signing, but most of them are either over 30 or just rubbish, generally the only decent players interested in signing are still from England (someone actually mentioned that whilst Wales and Northern Ireland have the lowest reps in FM, given they are so close to England it might be easier to complete this challenge in those leagues then some of the central / easter european leagues).

I have scouted a lot of british players and a lot are rated 5 stars. I can't sign any of them but for comparision to my squad, i would consider my team to be an average european side, not up there with the spanish sides but better than the scandinavian sides.

I have scouted a lot of british players and a lot are rated 5 stars. I can't sign any of them but for comparision to my squad, i would consider my team to be an average european side, not up there with the spanish sides but better than the scandinavian sides.

Interesting to see that you have also avoided local players, with only 2 Hungarian players, although I am impressed with how varied your squad is

its not so much a case of avoiding them, my scouts seem completely unable to find any decent ones. If they spent more a day looking they might do better, i've only seen a few 4 or 5 star ones in the last few years which i have actually found in other teams u18's. I've been unable to sign any of them since they usually play for my biggest rivals and my own youth players have never been better than 3 stars

Domestically this season ended as a disaster, at the mid season break after 17 league games i was unbeaten with just 5 goals conceded. The team went into meltdown, the goals completely dried up and 21 goals conceded in 13 games meant i finished 3rd.
In the hungarian cup i went out to Fenencvaros in the 4th rd, i won the away leg 2-1 but lost the home leg 5-0 . The league cup was the same, after winning the home leg 2-0 against Debrecen i lost the 2nd leg away 3-0.
Europe was a better story earlier in the season, after moving past Buducnost, i squeezed past Dinamo Zagred by 3-1 on agg. In the champions playoffs i lost the first leg away 3-2 to Rosenborg but came back to win 2-1 at home and go through on away goals.
In the group stages i faced Valencia (last years champions), AC Milan and Olympiakos. I was thrashed by Valencia and Milan but won 2-1 at home to Olympiakos and lost only 1-0 away. Disappointing to finish last in the group.

Arkhipov was the standout player continuing his excellent goal scoring form.
A couple of outstanding prospects in Williams, Sorenson and Jensen came in with Nemeth leaving along with Tisza who after making 117 apps over 6 years was released.

This one started with a fairly calm pre-season. We didn't have any spectacular prize money to spend and did not find many players worth to spend money on. The biggest investments were in future star John Antwi, who my scouts rate but I feel he's not ready; and in midfielder Nordine Cherkaoui who was meant to be a first team regular but would have problems settling in Croatia.

Despite keeping the same players that clinched the title last year, we found it tough to perform at the same level for most of the first half of the championship, constantly yo-yoing between 2nd and 4th place. We'd do great results only to follow it up with awkward losses at home. Perhaps the best example of that was when we travelled to face the leaders Hajduk, who had only conceded 3 goals in 15 games - we beat them 2-1 with a brilliantly efficent exhibition. The next two games? 1-1 ties at home versus Solin and Zadar, both teams fighting relegation.

Eventually after the winter break things got better. Perhaps it was the fact we were out of our european campaign by then, which was putting an unbearable strain on the players, perhaps it was the new signings - we made a big reshuffle in January, selling key players Vulic and Gavranic, and signing a lot of people with that money. Round 23 we got the championship lead for good, despite Hajduk having a decent shot at it too for a while. It was amusing to clinch the championship again versus my personal rivals Granicar, and on top of that we beat them 5-0. That was with two games to go, and it was also amusing to watch Hajduk drop a ton of points on those last few matches, as we ended the season with a 10 points lead. That would've been unthinkable by the mid-season mark.

Thanks to Mr. Platini these smaller countries like Croatia have now a much easier path to enter the Champions League, and we started that path with a predictable 2-0/5-0 thrashing of northern irish side Lisburn Distillery. Sarajevo put up a bigger fight in the following round, but the real test was Kobenhavn in the final playoff. We beat them 2-1 at home with a late comeback, unfortunately in Denmark we had a disastrous first half and they scored 3. Hamed then scored with 30 minutes to go and we waited for another goal that would make us go through on away goals, but it never happened. We got into a group stage, but of the Europa League.

Suddenly massive money arrived. At that point the club's total value was 3M€, but the prize money for losing the playoff was 2.1M, and the prize money for entering Europa League was 1M. So we doubled up the club's value by just showing up in Denmark!!

The club's short presence in the Europa League wasn't bad for our lack of experience. We were super close to winning both of our first two matches but conceded late equalizers to Dinamo Kiev and Sivasspor. Then big bad Everton came up and beat us 2-0 4-0, the last of which at home, very demoralizing. Another loss to Dinamo Kiev put us out for good, but then we went to Turkey and beat Sivasspor 3-1 to grab 3rd place over them.

No trouble until the semis. Dinamo Zagreb surprised us at home with a 2-0 win and I didn't even bother to field a full strength side for the 2nd leg. But Armando Mance had the game of his life, scoring 4 and qualifying us for another final!

The 2-leg final was against Rijeka, and those were two hectic matches. At home we won 3-2. And in Rijeka all goals were scored in the first 25 minutes, but it was still a fun 3-1, in our favour of course. Another domestic double for Olimpija!

We were awarded a ton of cash this season, both through Europe and through the big January player sales. I was planning to spend a lot of it on signings for next year, however the board just informed me that 3.8M of the budget will go to the training and youth facilities I asked for. I guess I can't complain, just have to get on with it and do the job on the field. The top priority is, of course, to do well enough in the Champions League to gather another big pot of gold and improve our reputation.

Just thought I would jump into this challenge. Always wanted to and finally have in Belgium. I have joined Football Couillet la louviere. An update for the first season will be posted soon. Good luck to everyone currently playing.

Noikeee, Well done on another title looks like you are begining it dominate domestically, the euro money helps immensely with this.
Do you think your squad is up to challenging the better teams in europe yet?
Certainly your players look like a similar strength to mine, although i would say the defence needs improving. how far afield can you scout? South america and africa are goldmines for players i'm finding.

Personal Info:
My first time accepting any of these challanges and im excited and looking forward to this. Ive been a FM fan since '10 when i discovered it on steam and havent stopped since my first game as a manager. I have played in different leagues with alot of success and alot of failure. This is my first time trying to manage a lower league team and wont be my last. I chose Poland because every once in a while you can scout out a couple of gems here and i feel its difficult enough for me for a good challenge, yet not to the point where im doomed for failure. Ive only started in the past few years really following football (EPL and MLS, with some La Liga sprinkled in) and am completely in love with it. Wish me luck, this should be fun.

Noikeee, Well done on another title looks like you are begining it dominate domestically, the euro money helps immensely with this.
Do you think your squad is up to challenging the better teams in europe yet?
Certainly your players look like a similar strength to mine, although i would say the defence needs improving. how far afield can you scout? South america and africa are goldmines for players i'm finding.

Thanks, I feel we're still way way behind the european elite but we've beat Kobenhavn once, we've beat PSV once so that's something at least.

I'm buying tons of south americans and africans too (can scout the whole world), but I think I've got an advantage over you as I doubt the local hungarian pool of talent is as good as the croatian. And it's time to use it as I'm pushing the limit of foreigners, they're not gaining croatian nationality fast enough.

The issue with defence is that I keep on buying players that are theoretically better but perform worse on the field. Finding it hard to replace the full-backs particularly, and they're both croatian so help with the foreign limit...

After my unsuccessful spending spree last year which saw my post a $20M loss, I only brought in 12 players this season, spending $5M, whilst I saw 25 players leave the club for $15.5M, the first time I had turned a profit in the transfer market. Of the 12 new faces, there were two that made an immediate impact on the senior squad:

Ray Ross: The biggest signing this season was the 22 year old English keeper who was released from Chelsea after only 4 league appearances for them in 8 seasons, however he also had 19 caps for England, and appeared to be their 3rd / 4th choice keeper. Given he was a young English international with quite good attributes, I was shocked that I was the only one interested in signing him, but I was and he is now a Dunloy player worth $13M, the second most valuable Dunloy player, and managed 42 clean sheets from 59 games at 7.05 - great debut season by Ross!

Jose Miguel Casares: The other big new signing was a 29 year old versatile Spanish defender who had played over 300 league games in the top flights of Spain, Serbia, Holland, Belgium and France before signing for Dunloy. Whilst he had poor technical attributes, his mental and physical attributes made up for it, and being able to play anywhere in defence also came in handy. Managed 35 games at 7.17 in his first Dunloy season, not bad.

Supporters Player of the Season / N.I. Premier Division Player of the SeasonLiam McDermott: For the 2nd consecutive season, he took out both of these awards, and 23 year old central defender had another fantastic season, with 18 goals, 3 assists and 10 MoM at 7.88 from 46 games, which makes for fantastic reading!

N.I. Premier Division Young Player of the SeasonMurray Hughes: After coming third in this award the last two seasons, he has finally won the award this season, stepping up to play an important role in central defence, as well as becoming a regular in the Scotland side, earning 16 caps. For Dunloy he had 3 goals, 4 assists and 2 MoM at 7.28 from 50 games, and at only 20 years old, he will hopefully blossom into something special.

League / Domestic Cups: Finally, I have done it, won every game in the domestic season, being 38 league games and 19 domestic cup games. This brings my unbeaten league run to 306, and my league games won in a row up to 70. With a perfect domestic season finally achieved, the only challenge left is to bring home the Champions League trophy.

League Reputation: 13th (0) - between Holland's Eredivisie and the Scottish Cup
Club Coefficient: 6th (-1) - between Arsenal and Olympique Lyonnais
National Coefficient: 11th (0) - between Scotland and Austria

Europe: My European adventure started with Sporting CP, Valencia and Wisla in the group stages, and as per usual now I had no problems with the group stages, managing 5 wins and 1 draw (0-0 against Sporting CP at home), scoring 10 goals and not conceding any, which again saw my top the group

CL 1st Knockout Round v Besiktas: 2-1 (A), 6-2 (H): A nice gentle start to the knockout rounds, the away leg was a fairly close affair, which Dunloy just had the better of, but the home leg was dominated by Dunloy, and the 6-2 away leg was just rewards for what was a dominating performance.

CL Quarter Final v Man Utd: 1-0 (A), 0-0 (H): The away leg first up was a match that parent club Man Utd dominated, with 56% possession and and 17 shots to 5, however Dunloy had the only clear cut chance of the game, and that was converted by Dunloy central defender and MoM Liam McDermott to give Dunloy a lucky 1-0 away win. In the home leg, it was a much more even game, and this time Dunloy had 53% of the ball, but again less shots on goal - 11 to 23. However, neither side managed to score, and the tie ended 0-0, or 1-0 on aggregate. A little lucky, but I'll take it.

CL Semi Final v Porto: 3-0 (H), 1-1 (A): Faced against the club that knocked me out of the CL in the 1st knockout round last year, I wanted revenge, and that is what I got in the first leg, a match dominated by Dunloy, and left with a 3-0 home leg win. The away leg was much closer, with Porto hitting the lead on 16 minutes, but Dunloy struck back thanks to star defender McDermott's 18th goal of the season after 62 minutes, and despite Porto having the best of the chances, that was how the game ended, 1-1, and 4-1 on aggregate.

Finally, after a complete failure last season, getting knocked out in the 1st knockout round, Dunloy is back to another Champions League Final, their 2nd in 3 seasons, and they were up against Olympique Lyonnais, a team they have only faced in the 2022 Quarter Final when they knocked out Dunloy 2-4 on aggregate. There is no doubting this Dunloy squad was much better placed than 3 years ago, but only time would tell if they could go one better.

CL Final v Olympique Lyonnais: To follow in detail

Finances / Facilities

After last seasons $36M loss I was much more careful in the transfer market, and whilst my wage budget increased to over $100k a week (from $800k a week last season), I managed to make $14M profit in the transfer marker, and overall made a $21M profit, leading to a more reasonable closing balance of $37M.

My stadium 'expansion' has also been approved, and is due to be completed in November, however it is listed as a 281 Seat Terrace Conversion, so it will be interesting to see if it will actually increase my capacity or just add some seats (which from what I have read will actually reduce my capacity for European ties).

New Club Records
Average Attendance: 614
Most Games Won in Row: 44 - 5/10/2024 to 12/4/2025
Most Games Without Losing: 84 - 23/3/2024 to 31/5/2025
Highest Transfer Fee Received: $11,500,000 (Jason Stamp to Preston - 26/8/2024)
Total Transfer Income: $19,500,000

After last seasons disaster i made sure that no repeat occured, leading the league for most of the season and wrapping up the title with 3 games to go. In the hungarian cup i went out in the 4th round on away goals. For the first time i reached the final of the league cup were i won 4-0 on agg over Fehervar.
In europe i easily went past Simurq and then squeezed past Sturm Graz 3-2 on agg after winning the 2nd leg away 2-1. In the 4th QRd i went through on away goals against Academica.
In the group matches i faced a tough group of Bolton, Benfica and Genoa. After losing the first match at home to Bolton 3-2 i though it would be a fruitless campaign but came back to win all 3 away games and the home match to Benfica before losing the final match at home to Genoa. The first Knockout round i was facing Wolfsburg and lost the first leg at home 3-2 and the away 2-1, both results could have been far bigger as well.

I had a bit of a clearout of some longtime players through the season to improve the squad quality. Busai (161 apps, 25 goals) and Magos (173, 2 goals) went when their contacts expired and BenSalem went in Jan. Kila was my record apps holder with 236 apps and 23 goals but wanted to move and with the better Hoveson coming in was sold on. Weiss (103 apps, 7 goals) also went as although first choice i felt i had other equally good options, the money went on buying Hendricks. Yameogo showed why he wasn't missed with some outstanding performances, arhkipov was his usual consistant goal scoring threat.Daniel was signed at the end of his contract and was described at his former club as a 'promising' centreback and the next Lucio.

In other news the board decided i didn't need any training ground improvements as they are good enough already even though they have never been improved from adequate.
They also spent 7 months planning a ground capacity increase before it was cancelled by the council.

Personal Info:
My first time accepting any of these challanges and im excited and looking forward to this. Ive been a FM fan since '10 when i discovered it on steam and havent stopped since my first game as a manager. I have played in different leagues with alot of success and alot of failure. This is my first time trying to manage a lower league team and wont be my last. I chose Poland because every once in a while you can scout out a couple of gems here and i feel its difficult enough for me for a good challenge, yet not to the point where im doomed for failure. Ive only started in the past few years really following football (EPL and MLS, with some La Liga sprinkled in) and am completely in love with it. Wish me luck, this should be fun.

Fcll

Season 2011/2012 - Belgian Third Division B
After taking the job, I went about imposing my style of play on the club. An attacking brand of football, in the formation 4-3-2-1. Some decent players, but there definately needs some additions to be made. No prospects at all in the youth team.

The team has a very good stadium, Tivoli, which has a capacity of 9900 with over half seated! Adequate corporate, adequate training, basic youth facilities and fairly basic youth recruitment.

League:
The season started well with the team adapting to my tactics quickly and winning 6 out of the first 10 games including a 5-1 win
The middle of the season didnt go so well, drawing the majority of our games, but we finished strongly to take 3rd spot on the table and qualify for the playoffs due to our position and the fact that we were fortunate enough that the 2 teams ahead of us had won a period each.

The playoffs started with 0-0 draw in the home leg and a 1-0 win in the away leg. In the semis, things were just as tight with a 2-1 win at home followed up with a 2-2 draw away. The final of the playoffs did not start well with a 2-1 loss away from home against the team that could only be described as my bogey team for the year, Verviers. The home leg was where it would be decided and at the end of 90 minutes, the score was 2-1 as a win so extra time beckoned. Both teams couldnt break each other down even though there was a red card for Verviers so the dreaded penalties were needed to see who would go up and who would go down. It required 12 penalties from each team, but a winner was finally decided. La Louviere were going to the 2nd division!

Belgian Cup:
The team hoped to go on a bit of a run in the belgian cup early, but it didnt eventuate. Started in the 3rd round, knocked out in the 4th which matched the expectations. Hopefully we can do better in the future.

Players:
Standout players for the year had to be my french striker Nicolas Pajot and attacking midfielder Taner Ozer, my captain. Pajot was top scorer with 21 goals for the season, a very healthy return. Ozer was a constant threat and finished the season with 10 goals and 10 assists. Fans player of the year was Stephane Ghislain.

Overall:
A very good year, culminating in one hell of a final in the playoffs. Couldnt ask for much more.

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Goals for next year:
- Trim off some of the deadwood
- Sign the players to keep us up
- Maybe a cup run
- Stay up in the 2nd division

UPDATE:
3 friendlys organised for the new season. 2 against belgian teams in the lower divisions like me. AND MAN CITY!!!! Hopefully we can get a bumper crowd packed into Tivoli for the game!

Here we are again, the 2nd Champions League final appearance in 3 seasons for Dunloy, this time against a very impressive Olympique Lyonnais side - all of their starting XI (and 4 of their 7 subs) are international players for either France, Brazil, Argentina or Spain, and they have an average value of $37M. This compared to Dunloy, which only has one current international (keeper Ray Ross, who is England's 3rd choice keeper), and an average value of only $8M. On paper, Olympique Lyonnais have it all over Dunloy, but as we know from two years ago, when Dunloy almost pulled off an upset, anything can happen.

Before we kickoff, let's have a look at the two players identified as key players for the match ahead:

Dunloy - Ray Ross: In his first season at Dunloy after 8 seasons at Chelsea, the Dunloy keeper and 3rd choice English keeper has been amazing keeping 42 clean sheets from 59 games, and having a look at his attributes it's no wonder why! At 23, he has already earned 19 English caps. Valued at $12M, he is the second most valuable Dunloy player, and earning $34k per week he is also one of the higher wage earners.

Olympique Lyonnais - Bernard Thiebaud: The 24 year old French defender was a youth product for Olympique Lyonnais, and he is an absolute beast. Just looking at his physical stats, he has 18+ for Acceleration (20), Balance, Pace (19 each), Agility and Stamina (18 each), making him the fastest thing on the football field, and unfortunately his technical and mental attributes are equally impressive. He has also earned 55 international caps for France (debuting at a record 19 years old). Valued at $76M, he is the 2nd most valuable player in the world, and earning $135k per week, he earns more than twice as much at the highest Dunloy earner. He has been shortlisted for the last 5 World Golden Balls, winning in 2023. He has also been included in the European Championship dream team and Champions League Dream Team in the past.

Time for the kickoff in the biggest game in Europe, Dunloy is lining up with the usual attacking 4-2-2 (really a 4-2-2-2, with an AML and AMR), whilst Olympique Lyonnais lining up with a standard 4-4-2

Kickoff

26th Minute: Olympique Lyonnais have the ball in the center of the field, and a couple of nice passes later they have the ball just outside the 18 yard box. A pass is played into the box, however Dunloy defender Hughes and keeper Ross both look to have it covered... although they both go for the ball, and defender Hughes only managed to kick the ball into his teammate and it bounces free to Olympique Lyonnais striker Colonnette, who can't believe his luck as he passes the ball into an empty net for the first goal of the match, terrible communication by the Dunloy defence! Dunloy 0 - Olympique Lyonnais 1

33rd Minute: Dunloy now with a free kick in their attacking third of the pitch. Striker Ince hits a great free kick into the 6 yard box, defender Hughes rises up and directs a header goal ward, but a diving save by the OL keeper Areola sees the ball pushed away into the path of Dunloy midfielder Clemence, who fires the ball straight into the sprawled keeper, the ball bounces off the keeper, then off OL defender Hernandez, and into the goal! An own goal by OL has leveled the scores, great pressure by Dunloy to create that goal! Dunloy 1 - Olympique Lyonnais 1

End of First Half: Dunloy 1 - Olympique Lyonnais 1: In a half short of chances, both teams have managed to get on the board, but both due to defensive errors. Dunloy make two changes with under performing midfielder Edwards (6.1) and Ince (6.0) replaced with Harris and Kennedy in like for like changes. Both new players are also excellent penalty takers, so they might come in handy later on.

55th Minute: Dunloy with the ball in defence, and making a counter attacking move... a couple of direct passes later they are outside their 16 yard box, and Dunloy striker Kennedy is played into the box, with 2 defenders bearing down on him, suddenly he is down in the box, and the ref blows his whistle! Wait, the ref is heading towards Kennedy, and has accused him of diving. He has already picked up a yellow card earlier, and now he is shown another one, and is sent off! In the 10 minutes Kennedy was on the pitch his stats read 1 pass, 1 offside, 4 fouls against, 2 yellow cards - not great reading! With Dunloy 1 man down, it's going to be tough now!

61st Minute: Olympique Lyonnais with the ball in the middle of the pitch, slowly bringing the ball down the left flank, suddenly OL striker Colonnette turns his man inside out and runs into the box, shoots, but great diving save by keeper Ross, and cleared by the Dunloy defence.

75th Minute: Olympique Lyonnais again with the ball, and again running down the pitch... this time Brazilian winger Alberto ends up with it on the edge of the box, with no defenders around him... shoots, but straight at the keeper, who holds onto it. OL are looking the much better team with an extra player, but are yet to make it count on the scoreboard.

84th Minute: Dunloy are making a rare forward run, and are flying down the left wing... a great cross into lone striker Wickham inside the box, bearing down on the keeper, and he also falls down inside the box. Another whistle, and this time it is a penalty! OL defender Diaz, who brought him down, and already has a yellow, has a chat to the ref... but just a warning. However the OL players are not happy at all and still complaining, and the ref hands out 2 yellow cards for dissent, including one to defender Diego who already has a yellow card, and is sent off! It's now 10 men each, with a Dunloy penalty to come!

85th Minute: Ok, Dunloy midfielder Harris with the penalty kick... but fires it straight into the keeper, who bats it away. The ball falls into the path of oncoming midfielder Sheppard who also shoots, but again straight into the keeper, who holds onto it this time. What a waste!

End of second half: Dunloy 1 - Olympique Lyonnais 1: Well, what an eventful second half! Despite the score still being 1-1, there were 8 yellow cards, 2 red cards and a missed penalty. So, both teams go into extra time with 10 men

92nd Minute: Olympique Lyonnais with a corner, deep towards the far post, headed across goal by an OL defender, then another header towards goal by OL striker Rodriguez, but straight at the keeper, and easily held.

101st Minute: Dunloy with the ball in defence... a few long passes into midfield, and suddenly another long pass into the box, lone striker Wickham is trying to run onto it, with 2 defenders also chasing it down, they all reach the ball at the same time, and again, Wickham is down, and again, another penalty!

102nd Minute: Midfielder Harris steps up for his 2nd penalty of the match, and fires it towards the left corner, but saved again by the keeper! Unbelievable! 2 penalty misses in the Champions League Final! Will this cost Dunloy the final? Only time will tell.

108th Minute: Dunloy with another corner early in the 2nd half of extra time. Ball floats towards the far post, and the OL defence clear it, but wait, another whistle, and it is another penalty to Dunloy, with midfielder Harris being fouled... and before i can change my penalty takers it is that man again Harris lining up for the penalty, his third attempt of the match. He takes his time with this penalty, and then shoots, but well over the crossbar, that wasn't close! I can't believe he has missed his 3rd penalty, and with not long to go, it looks like the match is now headed to penalties thanks to Harris' misses.

111th Minute: OL with the throw deep in, fullback Thiebaud tries a cross into the box, which is actually heading goal ward, but Ross makes a good save on the line - OL almost got lucky with that one!

119th Minute: Dunloy with the ball now, just minutes from the end of extra time... suddenly, from outside the box, midfielder Harris unleashes a fierce shot which the OL keeper just manages to push away at full stretch, Dunloy winger Peters reaches the ball first and passes it across the goalface to teammate Sheppard, who, between two defenders, fires a shot off and scores, the keeper helpless to react. And unlike 2 years ago, this goal does stand, and Dunloy hit the front, with 1 minute left in extra time! Dunloy 2 - Olympique Lyonnais 1

Full Time: Dunloy 2 - Olympique Lyonnais 1: That's it, the final siren, and Dunloy have finally done it! The have won the Champions League, and completed the challenge!!

Let's have a look at this Champions League winning side in more detail:

GK - Ray Ross: The 23 year old English keeper, with 19 caps, was a hero today, and walked away with the MoM. Average rating of 8.3
DL - Jose Miguel Casares: 30 year old fringe player Casares only came into the starting XI due to suspension, and played only his 2nd game in left back, but managed 11 interceptions, and a rating of 7.3
DC - Liam McDermott: The 23 year old central defender has been superb all season, scoring 18 goals this season, and managed 13 headers, and a rating of 7.4, still short of his 7.88 season average
DC - Murray Hughes: The 20 year old Scottish defender has already won 20 caps, and despite not the best attributes, he was the best defender, with 13 intercepts and a rating of 7.7
DR - Lee Jones: The 26 year old right back has some of the better attributes of the Dunloy players, but only managed a rating of 6.9
MC - Tim Edwards: Only lasted 45 minutes before being subbed off, had an average game with a 6.1 rating, but is leaving to join Schalke next season
MC - Jamie Sheppard: This 20 year old match winner is actually on loan from Newcastle, and playing only his 9th game for the season, but it was one to remember, scoring the winner despite picking up a twisted ankle in the 2nd half. Average rating of 7.7
AMR - Ross Clemence: Subbed off in extra time, the right winger had an unspectacular game with a rating of 6.9 (and one assist), but has been a solid performer all season.
AML - Thomas Peters: Great game by the 22 year old left winger, running 17.2 km, and setting up the game winning goal. Average rating of 8.1
ST - Connor Wickham (c): Solid game by the 32 year old considering he was the lone striker for most of the match, but surprisingly didn't manage a single attempt at goal! Average rating of 7.0
ST - Charlie Ince: The 25 year old English striker, who earned his first cap earlier this season, had a game to forget, dragged off after 45 minutes. Average Rating 6.0, although he has been the best striker all season with 35 goals at 7.55
(S1) MC: Philip Harris: The man of the moment for all the wrong reasons, whilst he had 6 shots on goal, he missed 3 penalties (despite having a penalty attribute of 17), and ended with an average rating of 3.5
(S2) ST: Jason Kennedy: Another match to forget, the backup striker lasted only 10 minutes before picking up 2 yellow cards. No average rating
(S3) AML: Zak Burton: 25 year old backup midfielder was brought on in the 93rd minute largely for his penalty taking skills, but wasn't needed! Average rating 6.3

(Sus) DL: John Beattie: Despite being suspended and unable to play in the final, the 24 year old left back had been one of the players of the season for Dunloy, with amazing physical and mental attributes, and he racked up 55 games at 7.66 - desperately unlucky to miss the final, but thankfully he wasn't needed.

Well, that is it, the challenge is finally complete, and amazingly the winner was scored by a Lonee from Newcastle playing only his 9th game... it was a bit of a gamble, but it payed off!

Well, I think I will play one more season with Dunloy to see if I can defend my title (and also add the Euro Cup / World Club Cup), but then I'm going to put an end to this career, which has spanned 14 seasons... although someone on here did mention that it is easier with a UK side as we can field largely English sides, so I am tempted to start another challenge in Eastern Europe... we'll see.

Good luck everyone with your challenge, and get ready for one last Dunloy update from me to see if I can defend my title!

There wasnt much to get rid of and even if i wanted to i couldnt. My reserves were non-existence, my U18's were worthless 1/2 star players, and my starting rotation needed a bit of help. I quickly realized that the dead weight was never there, because there was really no weight at all . Now my focus goes to the season and making sure I have a respectable finish.

Loans

Daniel Rabenda - Rabenda's stats for 2011-2012 - Great pickup for me. I really did not want to rely on loans for the first season because my goal was to establish continuity within the club. Loans would just rip the team apart when they would expire. This guy did a marvelous job for me even though he was slightly playing out of his traditional role. He lasted for the first half and did extremely well, but i noticed after the break his play dropped significantly so i kept him on the bench as a sub and would bring him in around the 60th minute to give my old striker a break.

Transfers

Sebastian Keska - Keska's stats for 2011-2012 - Solidified the lack of depth in the midfield. I threw him right into the fire with my starting lineup because of injuries, and he responded fairly well. Once i got my full squad back a month into the season i was switching him in and out from my starting 11 and i noticed that he was responding very well when he would come off the bench. Midway through the season i made a decision to bring him in as a super sub and he would rotate with Krauze during matches. Played exceptionally well in this setup as my scoring after the 60th minute increased, regardless if it was even or i was playing from behind.

Marcin Rogozinski - Rogozinski's stats for 2011-2012 - Mid-season transfer window pickup to help out with the lack of quality play in defense. With the system i was running i needed higher skill ball handling defense because i was playing alot of keep-away from the opposing team (after all, they cant score if they dont have the ball). Marcin helped out a great deal towards the end of the season once he learned the system and gelled with the team. Signed him for the next season and he will be staying as part of my starting 11.

2. Establish continuity and winning attitude - Mission Accomplished

Success begets success, so my mission was to establish a winning attitude. Having an ambitious group meant i would be either a great success or utter failure. The minimum amount of moves, putting players in their respective roles to optimize their abilities and finishing above and beyond expectations helped solidify a winning attitude and squad harmony. Starting the 2012 season i have kept 10 of my starting 11 which will help me start off my season with a bang. Ended season with squad harmony at 84% and the team is itching to get back on the pitch.

What an excellent season to start my career blowing away most of the competition, maintaining a winning bunch and getting ready to battle through another season.

Manager's status - As you can see, the board loves me. Increased payroll and invested another 130k into the team and it seems like they want to add more. Ive tried 3 times during the season to get them to invest in a youth academy and as much as they want to, they cant afford it. Im just going to keep plowing away and they will have to do it eventually, especially when i get promoted.

Notable Team Stats Beginning of season - End of season
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Team value - 45k up to 140k (up 95k)
Season tickets - 250 up to 291 (up 45)
Avg. ticket price - $2.20 up to $4.50 (up $2.30)
Avg. season ticket price - $14.00 up to 28.00 (up $14.00)

Key PlayersIreneusz Grybos - Grybos's stats for 2011-2012 - Team MVP - What can i say except he was exceptional to the team and the driving force behind the offense. I played him as a Target Man/Complete forward and he excelled at everything. He was everywhere on the pitch, tireless forward that adapted to every formation and any complementing striker i paired him with. 7 MoM's to boot. Tied him up for next 2 years

Janusz Iwanicki - Team vice-captain, instrumental to my play style of possession. Unfortunately i need to start looking for a replacement because he is getting older and slower.

Serges Keima - Keima's stats for 2011-2012 - 'The glue' behind the offense. Played a great midfield for this setup, played exceptionally well both ways and was proficient in his role. Only reason why the system worked so well was because of him, otherwise i would have to play a flat 4-4-2 instead of the one im playing now.

Have just restarted my Skjetten save in 2019!
As it stands we have progressed through the group stages of the Champs League and are hopeful of going one step further than last time (First time qualified!) where we lost 1-0 on aggregate against Barcelona in the Semi-Final.
We've just gone through against Everton on away goals and have been drawn in the Quarter Finals against FC Bayern, again.

Away leg first up, and although they completely outplayed us we somehow managed to draw 1-1.
The home leg was a much more even affair, but Skjetten's defence stayed firm and held out for a 0-0 draw. Skjetten progress through to the Semi's with an away goals victory!

Thanks guys for all the congratulations, it was a long hard slog but I was confident I could do it and I finally did it - and I'm sure all you guys can as well!

Thebaker - Whilst I also have (what I think is) a good tactic, I found the two key players in the team are a good goalkeeper (as they will get tested in Europe) and a reliable striker, and that's what I had this season with Ray Ross and Charlie Ince, both of who were rewarded with English caps this season. Keep at it and I'm sure you'll get there!

Ok, I've got one last Dunloy update to come to see if I can defend my title...

After years of playing football for home town neyland in the pembrokeshire league in wales, Button took a football management course and passed. Now he is living in sweden at the age of 35 looking to get a job in football management, he applied for various jobs and got Many job offers. He accepted Panellinios and is now spearheading their challenge to the top.

After years of playing football for home town neyland in the pembrokeshire league in wales, Button took a football management course and passed. Now he is living in sweden at the age of 35 looking to get a job in football management, he applied for various jobs and got Many job offers. He accepted Panellinios and is now spearheading their challenge to the top.

Um... you're not supposed to start unemployed. You're meant to just flat-out pick one of the previously unplayable teams

Welsh Wizard is it just me, or does everyone seem to be having a really easy time of it in Wales?

After completing the challenge last season it was amazing how many decent foreign players I could sign... I still couldn't sign many quality players, but still signed 12 in total for $4.7M, again most on frees, and sold 20 for $11.75, again turning a profit in the transfer market for the 2nd season in a row.

Whilst quite a few of the signings were of good quality and earned a place in the starting XI, there was one in particular who was particularly impressive:

Chris Milton: The 30 year old central defender had over 200 games experience with Arsenal, Man U, and then Chelsea before joining Dunloy, so his signing was a major coup! The defender has great physical and mental stats, and managed 11 goals and 7 MoM at 7.63 from 51 appearances

However, the best player for the season, and Supporter's Player of the Season, setting new Dunloy records, was 26 year old striker Charlie Ince:

Charlie Ince: In his third season at the club, after moving from Man U on a free, the 26 year old striker looks to finally be living up to his potential, scoring an amazing 46 goals, 23 assists and 15 MoM at 7.95 from 48 games - that is amazing reading in anyone's language. He was also the Club World Championship third best player and Champions League Golden Boot Runner Up, and had 1 English cap.

League / Domestic Cups: For the 2nd season in a row I won all 38 league games, as well as every domestic cup game, to extend my league games won in a row to 108 and league games without losing to an amazing 344 games, or 9 seasons in a row!

League Reputation: 13th (0) - between Scotland's Clydesdale Bank Premier League and German Cup
Club Coefficient: 3rd (-3) - between Real Madrid and Inter Milan
National Coefficient: 10th (-1) - between Holland and Austria

European Super Cup / Club World Championship

For the first time in it's history, Dunloy was starting the season with the European Super Cup, and was up against Europa League winners Inter Milan.

Whilst the game was fairly even, with Dunloy having 16 shots to 12, Inter made their shots count, with 6 on target, and 4 of those in the back of the net, to see Dunloy walk away with a disappointing 0-4 loss, the 2nd biggest loss in their history! Disappointing result, but I'm only really concerned with the Champions League title at this stage.

The Club World Championship was also a first for Dunloy, and I was drawn against US side LA Galaxy in the semi, which I comfortably won 3-1. In the final I was drawn against another US side (odd?) in New York, and that was also won comfortably by Dunloy, 4-0, making Dunloy the Champions of the World!

Europe: The group stage this season saw me up against Liverpool, Valencia and Wisla - not an easy group, but for the defending champions it shouldn't be a problem, and it wasn't. My first game, away against Liverpool, was actually a 1-1 draw, but I then won all my other group games, the highlight being a stunning 7-0 home win against Wisla!

CL 1st Knockout Round v Barcelona: The knockout round started with one of the biggest sides in the world in Barcelona, where I got a somewhat lucky 1-0 away win, and a tight 1-1 home win, to get me through to the semi's due to a little bit of luck.

CL Quarter Final v Atletico Madrid: The Quarter Final was quite the opposite, with Dunloy dominating the home leg but only leaving with a 1-1 draw. However, the away leg went more to plan, and Dunloy walked away with a deserved 2-0 away win, and went through 3-1 on aggregate

CL Semi Final v Liverpool: Up against Liverpool again, after meeting them in the Group Stage, the home leg was a tight 1-1 draw, and the away leg started very badly, with Dunloy right back Hanson being sent off in the 38th minute, however we still managed to secure a 2-1 away win, despite Liverpool having 15 shots to 10, and 6 on target to 2 - once again, a little bit of luck got me through, and Dunloy were in their 3rd CL final in the past 4 seasons

CL Final v Arsenal: I was going to post a shot by shot update as I have the last few CL finals... but I can't be bothered. In the Champions League final against number 1 seed Arsenal, Dunloy was never really in the match, and whilst Dunloy had 9 shots to 13, they only had 1 on target to Arsenal's 6, and, deservedly, Arsenal won 1-0 due to a 51 minute strike by their central midfielder.

Despite making it all the way to the CL final, and making a $5M profit in the transfer marker, I still made a $10M loss, to bring the total bank balance to $26M... it's a good this is my last season, otherwise I think my $1.4M a week wage bill would eventually drive this club to bankruptcy (despite the wage budget being $1.7M a week) - it's certainly a long way from the $5k / week I initially had as my wage budget when I first started!

Well, that was it, my last season in charge of Dunloy, and whilst I have been unable to defend my Champions League title, going down 0-1 to Arsenal in the final, it was a good run, and a great 15 seasons in charge of the club, a reign which has seen Dunloy climb to 3rd in the European coefficients (yet they still have 5 parent clubs!).

Thanks everyone for reading my story and providing feedback, thanks BWG for showing it could be done in the first place!

There was one post somewhere in here that stated managing in the UK / Ireland is easier than the rest of Europe, despite the lower reputation, due to the fact you can pick up English players easier, so I am tempted to try managing somewhere in Eastern Europe - Bulgaria maybe... but we'll see how I feel after I retire from Dunloy.

There was one post somewhere in here that stated managing in the UK / Ireland is easier than the rest of Europe, despite the lower reputation, due to the fact you can pick up English players easier, so I am tempted to try managing somewhere in Eastern Europe - Bulgaria maybe... but we'll see how I feel after I retire from Dunloy.

On the other hand in the UK you probably have more problems signing foreigners because of work permits...

Doesn't seem to be too much of a problem since they appear not to want to sign for welsh and irish teams anyway

Exactly what I was going to say... It's hard enough to convince someone from Western Europe to make the short trip to Wales / Northern Ireland, let alone someone from outside of Europe!

In my 15 seasons I only found a couple non-EU players I wanted who were actually interested in signing for me (towards the end of my career when I was a CL regular) - and thankfully they both were eligable for a work permit.

Exactly what I was going to say... It's hard enough to convince someone from Western Europe to make the short trip to Wales / Northern Ireland, let alone someone from outside of Europe!

In my 15 seasons I only found a couple non-EU players I wanted who were actually interested in signing for me (towards the end of my career when I was a CL regular) - and thankfully they both were eligable for a work permit.

Playing in Hungary for 13 years so far, i still can't get any french, dutch, german and british players to sign for me and only a few spanish ones. I have however signed quite a few south americans (it would have been more if had enough money) and several teams of africans.

The league proved to be quite easy this year and i was annoyed to actually lose a few games, my defence was extremely strong, l also scored a record number of goals. With the league mostly wrapped up i concentrated on the hungarian cup winning it for the first time in 4 years by beating Fehervar 2-0 in the final. I had been beaten by Fehervar in the semi-final of the league cup.
I the CL i won 6-0 on agg against Dinamo Tirana and 10-1 on agg against Distillary before facing H Tel-Aviv in the champions playoff, unfortunately i got hammered 4-3 at home and then 3-0 away. This meant i went into the Euro cup groups, in an easy group i was very disappointing with my defence particualy poor and finished 3rd.

My squad is pretty strong at the moment although i sold 2 first teamers as their contract demands were too much. Markovic (232 app 32 goals) had already lost his first team spot to Lebedev who really scored a lot from midfield, most from the penalty spot. Irogoyen (76 apps 17 goals) was a backup player. Mariqui was signed for a club record amount a year ago although he didn't quite fire like i hoped after coming in jan. Arkhipov was again the main star scoring a record number of goals.

A new board came in dec from within, no new money was made available.
My finances are reasonable still and after a year of planning the board announced an upgrade to the training facilities which would be the first if completed.
I also received this message which was unexpected, not much of increase on the current 4100 though.

Mostly thanks to my efforts the league standard and coefficient rose, none of the other hungarian clubs are getting very far in europe although 2 lost to spanish and italian oppositon in the 4th QR of the euro cup.
Its a mystery to me why Debrecen are not doing much better since they have at the end of the season moved from their 15000 stadium which they were filling to a new 21000 all seater. They have good facilities and have managed to spend 32 million and get back 53 million, they have also made the 4th QRd of the CL and the euro cup groups a few times.

- Slow start, due to signing a whole new team on free's, and them taking ages to gel.
- Tight finish as the title went down to the last game of the season, in which I was 20 minues from finishing second
- My wages are high, but i'll get an increase on promotion
- My defence was solid, the keeper I inherited turned out to be the most solid
- Goals were hard to come by, most games having 1 or 2 goals max, but we did go wild with a 5-0

Alurny - Well done on winning the division in your first year - i took 4 years to get out of the league.
You shouldn't have to worry about the premier division - there is very little difference between it and the first division, i finished 3rd in my first year up.

Marky Mark - did you find the standard of Northern Irish players and the Northern Irish team improved thanks to the league getting better?

Sadly, the standard of Norther Irish players never noticeable improved. Despite having state of the art youth facilities, all of my youth products have been rubbish, and below is the winner of the N. Irish Player of the Year (ie best N. Irish player in the world):

Jonny Gorman: Whilst he is a handy player, he wouldn't make my Dunloy starting XI (and would be lucky to make the senior squad) - the fact that he is the best N. Irish player says a lot about the quality of their players.

The standard of the Northern Irish teams have improved however, and that is because they are now full of English players - there are a total of 5 Northern Irish players in the top 6 Premier Division clubs, and the bottom 6 clubs only have an average of 2-3 Northern Irish players each.

On a side note, I have decided that I won't have truly completed this challenge until I win the Champions team without a UK side full of Englishmen, so I will be re-commencing this with Bulgarian side Sportist (General Toshevo), who have no money, no facilities, no staff, and play at 'unknown stadium' - should be interesting!

Marky Mark - to be fair i think anyone doing well in this challenge is probably not doing so with homegrown players except maybe in holland. I'm beginning to dominate in hungary and i only have 1 hungarian player in my squad and he is the weakest player. I only have adequate youth so am not producing any decent players, quite a few teams have good youth so they get better players.
for comparison here are the best 2 players in the hungary squad - Palinko, Peto. Palinko can still improve according to my scouts.

My first season in Bulgaria in charge of Sportist GT started ok... not fantastic, but my the mid way point of the season I was in 9th place, and not too far away from 3rd place and instant promotion. With all of the players having come together at the start of the season, I was confident of a better 2nd half once the team had gelled, but instead the opposite happened, and the team went on a 9 game winless streak, and struggled for the rest of the season, finishing their first season in 14th, a comfortable 13 points from 17th place and relegation, but still a disappointing season, especially given I had blown the wage budget in the hope of instant promotion, and would not be unlikely to be able to sign any new players next season.

The first thing I did was move my entire first team (all amateurs) into the reserves, and bringing in 19 players on free transfers, most being over 24 year olds from amateur Bulgarian clubs. Whilst I tried to be careful with the money I was offering these players, with the most being $500 / week, I still completely overshot the tiny wage budget, and due to this the board would not let me sign any more players, so I filled up the squad with loan players.

Unfortunately, most failed to perform to a great level, however there was one player who stood out, that was 31 year old striker Dimitar Damyanov

Dimitar Damyanov: Whilst he doesn't have a single stat over 13, he does have a few in double figures, which for this level of competition is an achievement, and he performed solidly in his first season, with 10 goals, 6 assists and 4 MoM at 7.2 from 27 games... let's hope he's got another decent season in him before he goes into decline.

Due to my wage total being $2k / week over the budget, I quickly put the club into debt, and racked up a $357k loss for the season, ending with a debt of around $300k - I really need to earn promotion soon before this debt spirals out of control!

One interesting thing is that the club is apparently playing at 'unknown' stadium, with an unknown capacity, and, despite me not being able to make any stadium requests, I received a message telling me my planned stadium move had to be scrapped as the local council refused to grant permission? Huh?? Still, my highest attendance of 706 this season is more that the capacity of my old Dunloy stadium in Northern Ireland, so I can't complain... maybe this means I have unlimited capacity?

So, poor first season, let's see if the 2nd season will be any better!

- I struggled for goals, luckily Prince Rajcomar started banging them in towards the end of the season
- I floated around the drop zone all season, until I changed my tactic to a counter style 4-4-2, which seemed to improve my play
- My squad took ages to gel again, as I signed a whole new team again (pretty much)
- I didn't bother with the cups
- The big teams humped me
- The big earners I signed on free's need to go, a couple want to move to bigger clubs already so will be sold
- I keep getting offered african players, and I will take advantage of that!
_ *I turned professional
- I can scout the whole of europe

Aims:

- Improve my league position
- Build on my squad
- Get rid of the old, highly paid, want aways
- Sign some youngsters, and build for the future

- I keep getting offered african players, and I will take advantage of that!

- I can scout the whole of europe

African players are the way to go in Hungary, i would also concentrate on eastern europe since almost no player west of hungary will join you (scouting uk is a particular waste of time), just keep an eye on scandinavia for when those players will sign for you.